The California Arts Council announces that 77 California arts organizations will receive grants from the 2011-12 Creating Public Value Program. The Creating Public Value Program seeks to promote the positive impact of the arts in the lives of all Californians by supporting small arts organizations in rural and underserved communities in which geography, economic conditions, ethnic background, or disability hinder access to the arts. A total of $658,895 will be awarded.
“The Arts Council’s Creating Public Value Program aims to assist arts organizations located in rural and underserved communities in our state,” said Craig Watson, Director of the California Arts Council. “Geographic and economic constraints can hamper arts programming in rural areas and in urban communities where there is limited access to the arts. These organizations improve the quality of life and economic progress in these neighborhoods by providing arts programming for all ages.”
The Creating Public Value Program’s intent is to promote partnerships, lifelong learning, and the social and economic impact of the arts. Grantees demonstrated how they will support new and expanded programs to benefit the communities they serve through any of the following goals: supporting safe and creative opportunities for youth; fostering attractive and livable neighborhoods and communities; providing greater access to the arts for individuals, families and communities; and/or encouraging economic and community development.
Funding for this program comes in part from the sale of the Arts Plate, the iconic license plate with a sunset and palm tree motif designed by California artist Wayne Thiebaud. If one million drivers put Arts Plates on their vehicles, California would have $40 million for the arts and arts education annually. (More information is available at http://www.artsplate.org/.)
For more information about the Creating Public Value program, contact the California Arts Council’s Information Officer Mary Beth Barber at (916) 322-6588 or mbarber@cac.ca.gov. Additional information may be found on the California Arts Council’s website at http://www.arts.ca.gov/.
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Recipients of 2010-2011 Creating Public Value Program Grants
3rd i South Asian Independent Film (San Francisco) will support Bombay Noir, a program that uses film screenings, discussions and filmmaker presentations to examines poverty and youth culture, at the 10th Annual San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival in November 2012. $9,500
A Reason To Survive (San Diego) will expand its Empower Program by increasing the number of participants from 10 to 20 at-risk youth (ages 14-23) and provide innovative arts-based programming, education, and employment opportunities. $5,400
Abhinaya Dance Company (San Jose) will formalize and expand its Teacher Training Program to strengthen the teaching skills of four Bharatanatyam choreographers, enhancing their ability to teach the next generation of Indian-American dancers in Silicon Valley. $9,500
Army of Lovers (San Francisco) will support the fall 2012 restaging of The Biggest Quake: the Impact of AIDS on San Francisco, at Berkeley’s La Pena Cultural Center and at La Raza Galeria Posada in Sacramento. $8,500
Arts for LA (Los Angeles) will support the development and publication of four cultural asset maps that will cover cultural services, arts education programs, and funding streams for artists and organizations in the low-income LA County communities of Boyle Heights, Pomona, MacArthur Park, and Long Beach. Publications will be in English, Khmer, and Spanish. $8,000
Asian American Women Artists Association (San Francisco) will present underCurrents & The Quest for Space, a multi-media, multi-disciplinary arts exhibition of Asian American women’s art. $8,500
Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (San Francisco) will heighten the visibility of API arts through the presentation of the 16th United States of Asian American Festival with the theme: “Passing it Forward: Exploring passing traditions to next generations”; at least five organizations are festival partners. $8,000
AXIS Dance Company (Oakland) will reach out to Santa Clara’s differently abled community through workshops, open rehearsals and a forum on the physically integrated dance of Contingencies, a new work for AXIS’ 25th anniversary season. $9,500
Bethany Center Foundation of San Francisco (San Francisco) will expand Ruth’s Table, a lifelong learning organization that will bring generations of ethnically diverse populations together in arts workshops and events that highlight the talent and experience of the individuals living at the Bethany Center’s senior housing facilities. $8,000
Calaveras County Arts Council (San Andreas) will expand the “Ovations Performing Arts Series” so that artists booked for public performances can visit 10 local schools, providing educational presentations and quality performing arts to K-12 students in isolated communities. $8,500
Center for the Study of Political Graphics (Los Angeles) will produce a more accessible version of its exhibition Prison Nation: Posters on the Prison Industrial Complex, and have the exhibit travel to 3 locations in the San Joaquin Valley and/or the Inland Empire, along with educational programs and arts workshops for youth and others who are most impacted by California’s criminal justice policies. $9,000
Classics 4 Kids (San Diego) will expand its “Arts Access Project”, a cultural and educational experience that supports children in grades 1-3 with limited financial resources through two orchestra performances of Blue Grass and Bach, performed by the Classics Philharmonic Orchestra and guest Blue Grass musicians. $8,000
Croatian American Cultural Center (San Francisco) will establish the production of the Children’s Ethnic Dance Festival in March 2013 as a recurring annual program and as a permanent feature of San Francisco’s cultural landscape. Five master artists will conduct ongoing workshops with youth, perpetuating traditional ethnic dance forms. $9,000
CubaCaribe (San Francisco) will expand the 2013 CubaCaribe Festival of Dance and Music to include international artists in folkloric, contemporary dance, and music of the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora, such as the Cuban company Teatro de la Danza del Caribe. $8,500
Cultural Odyssey (San Francisco) will produce BIRTHRIGHT?, the title for the proposed residency and performance workshop collaboration between lead artist Rhodessa Jones, her Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, and Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific. $8,000
El Dorado Arts Council (Placerville) will expand “Art in the Orchard” in collaboration with the Apple Hill Growers Association and El Dorado County Farm Trails to include 12 or more farms, orchards, and vineyards as venues to host visual and/or performing artists. $9,000
El Teatro Campesino (San Juan Bautista) will continue the multi-year production, community outreach and promotion expansion of The Miracle Mystery and Historical Cycle of San Juan Bautista to position this rural city as a prime destination for art and culture. $8,000
Eldergivers (San Francisco) will foster art practice with long-term Medicare and Medi-Cal residents in senior care facilities in Alameda County through the “Art With Elders” program in which seniors will interact with artists and exhibit their work in various public venues in the Bay Area. $9,000
Epiphany Productions (San Francisco) will feature new outdoor site-specific works presented in 16 free performances along the T MUNI line in the 9th Annual San Francisco Trolley Dances festival. $8,500
Femina Potens (San Francisco) will provide a community-based multidisciplinary arts education program in partnership with the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center to address the needs and interests of LGBTQ youth. $8,500
FilAm ARTS (Los Angeles) will support the Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture, an arts engagement program aiming to give voice to Filipino American artists and audiences in a participatory online curation process. $8,000
Firebird Youth Chinese Orchestra (San Jose) will promote traditional Chinese music and recruit new students through Chinese radio programming in the San Francisco Bay Area, in addition to offering a number of free-of-charge performances to multicultural community residents. $9,000
First Night Monterey (Monterey) will support “¡Viva! Greenfield Visual and Digital Arts Program”, a pilot collaboration to offer arts workshops at Greenfield schools, libraries, the Migrant Education Program at the Monterey County Office of Education, and the Community Science Workshop. $8,500
Flyaway Productions (San Francisco) will support the arts-based urban redevelopment strategies of their community partner, Urban Solutions, focusing on San Francisco’s Central Market/6th Street neighborhood, resulting in Flyaway’s 2012 production of Niagara Falling. $9,500
Fresh Meat Productions (San Francisco) will expand statewide touring activities and provide underserved LGBT audiences in Chico, Santa Cruz, Claremont, San Diego, Santa Monica, and San Jose access to professional-quality arts events. $10,000
Galería de la Raza (San Francisco) will support a new capacity-building program to promote the artistic, financial and audience growth of San Francisco’s Latino arts community by conducting 12 hours of free artistic planning workshops for 15 Latino artists. $9,000
Gamelan Sekar Jaya (Berkeley) will provide “IWA ABADI: The Eternal Spirit”, a community engagement program that offers opportunities for youth to work with Master Balinese Artists and enhances access to workshops and classes to individuals and families with an emphasis on underserved and immigrant communities. $9,000
Genryu Arts (San Francisco) will support its 2012-13 Japantown Engagement Initiative which will include traditional Japanese arts workshops and community outreach activities that will preserve and advance Japantown’s cultural character. $8,000
Golden Thread Productions (San Francisco) will provide community outreach and youth engagement activities at the 2012 “ReOrient Festival and Forum,” which showcases the diversity of the region and facilitates dialogue and cultural exchange between Middle Eastern and non-Middle Eastern communities. $8,500
Great Leap (Los Angeles) will partner with EndOil to conduct Collaboratory XI: Breathe Easy, a 6-8 week performance workshop that focuses on the impact of environmental pollution on the quality of life in the Long Beach area. $8,500
Guitars in the Classroom (Berkeley) will collaborate with Oakland elementary schools Manzanita SEED and Prescott, and performing group Colibrí, who will offer a comprehensive music integration program that includes classes in guitar and music for teachers and parents to encourage learning in the classroom. $7,996
Heidi Duckler Dance Theater (Los Angeles) will support FEEDBACK, a new mobile work that will bring performances three the sub-communities of Los Angeles: East LA, South LA, and the San Fernando Valley; the project was inspired by the West Coast food-cart phenomenon. $8,000
Highways, Inc. (Santa Monica) will launch a new program to serve the L. A. region’s LGBTQ artists and audiences. The program will involve 10 culturally diverse LGBTQ performers and spoken word artists creating new works that will broaden, expand, and diversify Highways audiences. $9,500
Ink People Center for the Arts (Eureka) will support “The MARZ (Media & Arts Resource Zone) Project”, a safe space for at-risk youth to engage in healthy self-expression, and confidence and leadership skills building in a creative community. $9,000
Instituto Mazatlán Bellas Artes (Sacramento) will provide the “Proyecto Infantil” program, offering underserved children an opportunity to learn about Mexican culture through dance and music. $8,000
Inyo Council for the Arts (Bishop) will highlight Native American and Latino communities’ cultures and performing artists through ‘Cultural Villages’ at the annual Millpond Music Festival. $9,000
J.U.i.C.E. (Los Angeles) will expand programming to help young artists attain professional careers in the arts by augmenting existing programming to provide instruction and practice in event production, marketing and outreach, booking, and performance. $8,500
Kearny Street Workshop (San Francisco) will celebrate its 40th anniversary by providing a multidisciplinary arts program which will include a performance showcase, music-video and literary events, a multi-sensory exhibition, and a town hall event discussing the future of ethnic arts organizing. Each event will be organized in partnership with a different organization. $8,500
Khmer Arts (Long Beach) will host four Cambodian artists in a one-week residency in Long Beach’s Cambodia Town as they work with local artists, students and the community to produce a public concert at the Long Beach Museum of Art. The concert will focus on dance rituals of Cambodia and include a 10th anniversary celebration of the founding of Khmer Arts. $10,000
Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble (Oakland) will support Kitka’s Executive/Artistic Director and Ensemble Manager/Assistant Director salaries, enabling them to produce and promote Song Routes in a New Land, a community outreach and performance program in California. Song Routes will engage culturally underserved Greek, Armenian and Georgian communities through workshops and concerts. $9,500
Kularts (San Francisco) will support the program “Making Visible”, a year-long series of participatory public arts events highlighting Pilipino arts and culture in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco. $9,000
LA Commons (Los Angeles) will build on the success of its docent-led tours and the Found LA Festival by expanding the number of docent guides, neighborhoods, and visitors, as well as develop web content and multimedia features to provide a platform for community profiles, voices, and dialogues. $9,000
La Pocha Nostra (San Francisco) will mentor marginalized youth by conducting a 5-day performing arts workshop along with emerging performance artists of color, LGBT artists, artists with disabilities, and young artists who are homeless. $8,000
La Raza Galería Posada (Sacramento) will partner with the Midtown Business Association (MBA) to expand its Día de los Muertos programming and promote economic activity with the creation of altars by local artists to be installed in MBA businesses. $8,000
Lenora Lee Dance (San Francisco) will collaborate with Chinatown social services agency Cameron House and Kei Lun Martial Arts to explore the potential role Lenora Lee Dance’s interdisciplinary arts approaches can play in strengthening the Chinatown. $8,000
Levitt Pavilion Pasadena (Pasadena) will expand their free 50 concert summer music series by adding pre-concert programming, including additional multidisciplinary performances, artist interviews, arts instruction, and community/business partnerships. $9,500
Los Angeles Poverty Department (Los Angeles) will prepare for the production of the third Annual Festival for All Skid Row Artists which celebrates and encourages creativity, artistic production, and education in the neighborhood and introduces Skid Row’s art and cultural assets to greater Los Angeles. $9,000
Mariposa County Arts Council, Inc. (Mariposa) will contract with professional groups to perform in centers and parks throughout the region, with free or low cost admissions to provide exposure to culturally diverse performances and stimulate appreciation and value for the art. $8,000
Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company (San Diego) will provide employment for actors of color, arts experience for youth, and increase and diversify arts engagement by producing the bilingual play Kita y Fernanda by Tanya Saracho, the story of two girls from different backgrounds growing up in the U.S. $9,000
Oakland Asian Cultural Center (Oakland) will partner with Ger Youth Center, the Asian branch of the Oakland Public Library, and API Youth Promoting Advocacy & Leadership, to provide after-school arts programs to over 250 Asian/Pacific Islander American youth ages 6-18. $9,000
Peninsula Symphony Association (Palos Verdes Peninsula) will present musical assemblies at three Title I elementary schools, featuring five professional musicians who will demonstrate various musical instruments and perform Peter and the Wolf; in addition, students and their families will be invited to attend dress rehearsals of three Peninsula Symphony concerts. $8,500
Playhouse 395 (Bishop) will provide scholarships, transportation, and/or address other needs in low-income Native American and Latino communities in an effort to increase minority youth involvement in theater arts. $8,000
Playhouse Arts (Arcata) will encourage new storytellers and often-unheard stories to thrive within the community through the program “The Word” by offering inter-generational workshops and culminate in an evening of performances to be broadcasted live on KHSU, the local PBS station. $8,500
Purple Moon Dance Project (San Francisco) will build upon its current site-specific performance When Dreams Are Interrupted – Fields of Migration to highlight the shared history of California’s Japanese-American communities during WWII and the Filipino-American communities who worked in agriculture and live in the vacated Japantowns in the South Bay. $9,500
Queer Cultural Center (San Francisco) will establish an integrated Facebook community that will enable 25 commissioned LGBT artists to frequently interact with the center’s Artistic Development and Communications directors while they create, develop, fundraise, publicize, and produce original works. $8,000
Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (San Francisco) will partner with Latino organizations to support the program and documentary Corazon de Familia (Heart of Family), which examines the everyday lives, challenges, and joys of queer Chicana/Latina women who are raising children. $9,000
Quijeremá (Oakland) will compose and develop a new work, Al Son del Tunduki, in a series of workshops and concerts that center on the rhythms and musical forms from the African Diaspora in the Americas, and highlight the Diaspora’s historical and cultural presence. $5,738
RADAR Productions (San Francisco) will launch an innovative public/private partnership between RADAR Productions and City Lights Books that will publish and distribute two books by LGBT authors selected and edited by RADAR’s Executive Director, author Michelle Tea. $8,500
Robey Theatre Company (Los Angeles) will host 600 middle and high school students for 16 encore performances of the play Bronzeville at the Japanese American National Museum’s Media Center in Los Angeles during May 2013, as well as expand lesson plans for teachers related to the Japanese American experience during WWII. $9,000
San Benito County Arts Council (Hollister) will partner with the Hollister Downtown Association and other business cooperatives to create a formal partnership with the Black Sage Gallery to provide greater access to the arts through new and expanded programs for individuals, youth, families, and the artist community. $8,500
San Diego Dance Theater (San Diego) will grow their “Kids-On-Board” educational and outreach component to serve 600 students and teachers as they receive a workshop in creating site-specific dance performances and experience San Diego Dance Theater’s 14th annual “Trolley Dances” free of charge. $9,000
San Francisco World Music Festival (San Francisco) will support personnel and production costs for six runs of a new festival school program, The Opera Project School Show, reaching 3,000 minority students from 15 of San Francisco Unified School District’s elementary, middle, and high schools. $8,500
Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center (Santa Cruz) will support free after-school arts education at five schools and provide students art instruction with teaching artists once a week, as well as provide materials for mentorship activities for teens and adults, youth arts programming, administrative fees, and marketing expenses. $8,000
Shasta County Arts Council (Redding) will encourage cooperation and coordinated programming between Northern California arts councils in Trinity, Shasta, Tehama, and Butte with True North Tour, a program which employs regional musicians for live performances, as well as encourage economic expansion and arts awareness. $8,500
Siskiyou Arts Council (Mount Shasta) will expand the “Arts Ambassador” program by hiring three additional community members to connect with and develop county-wide relationships by providing a presence and coordination at arts events, fundraising, increased membership and board meetings. $8,000
Sixth Street Photography Workshop (San Francisco) will offer an instructional photography workshop series to convalescing military veteran artists who will participate in the exhibition A New Morning by producing works expressing a central theme of recovery. $9,000
Sol Collective (Sacramento) will support the Free-Sol Arts Academy in order to expand current in-school program to include weekly after-school workshops in silk-screening, music production, and poetry at their community site. $8,000
South East European Film Festival (Los Angeles) will hire two project and media developers to expand the Festival’s reach into new regional areas with South Eastern European communities through partnerships and regional sponsors in Berkeley, Irvine, Claremont, and Monterey. $9,000
Susanville Symphony Society (Susanville) will sponsor a composition competition that will invite composers to submit original work and foster the creation of new American symphonic works. The winning compositions will be produced and performed by the Susanville Symphony Orchestra. $6,821
TeAda Productions (Santa Monica) will partner with three non-profit community-based organizations to work with Southeast Asian and Latino immigrant artists to develop their skills as an ensemble and to create a single performance piece. $8,000
Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras (Los Angeles) will offer the “Day Labor Theater Without Borders” program, a theater ensemble of day laborers that will amplify the voice of the day labor community as it expands its short play Caminos al Paraíso/Paths to Paradise into its first full-length production. $9,000
Vallejo Choral Society (Vallejo) will provide a performance of Benjamin Britten’s cantata Saint Nicholas in collaboration with Vallejo Choral Society’s Campanelli Children’s Chorus and the Vallejo Symphony. $7,440
Virginia Avenue Project (Santa Monica) will pair a professional writer/performer with a child in the program “One-on-Ones” in which children and writer/performer collaborate on an original work that is performed for the community in a fully staged production. $8,500
Visual Communications (Los Angeles) will host the 29th annual LA Asian Pacific Film Festival in May 2013 to showcase the accomplishments and evolving role of Asian American women in film. $9,500
Watts Village Theater Company (Los Angeles) will commission 12 theater companies throughout California to expand Meet Me @Metro IV, an interactive, site-specific, collaborative series of mobile performances, into a festival model that offers simultaneous performances along the metro’s rail lines. $9,500
Writerz Blok (San Diego) will support The Village Beautification Project, consisting of public art displays to be produced by artists of Writerz Blok in southeastern San Diego, one of the country’s most under-served and under-invested neighborhoods. $8,500
Youth Orchestras of Fresno (Fresno) will expand “Access Plus,” a program for underserved youth that offers free instrumental training alongside existing ensemble programs. Participating youth will be part of the 2012-13 concert series, culminating with the All the World’s a Stage performance in May 2013. $9,000
